1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hand-operated cap dispenser for dispensing small amounts of commodities of various kinds from a capped container.
2. The Prior Art
Typically commodities, such as coffee, tea, powdered dairy products, and other substances in granular or powdered form, have been contained and distributed in cans, jars, and other containers having covers which must be removed to allow the user access to the contents. The user removes a portion of the contents, usually with a spoon, and then replaces the cover to keep the unused contents fresh and in air-tight condition to prevent loss of flavor. Among the disadvantages with this type of assembly are that continuous opening and closing of the container permits the contents to go stale sooner and requires the use of spoons or other independent measuring devices in the dispensing of the product which are not always conveniently near and the handling of which requires a degree of skill or dexterity.
The cap dispenser elements by which a predetermined quantity of coffee, tea, or the like can be discharged from a container while its cap is closed are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,056,532 discloses a dispenser slide located in a container cap having a cavity for receiving a predetermined amount of contents of the container and adapted to discharge the material in the cavity when the slide is moved outward from the profile of the cap. A similar arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,092. The drawbacks, generally, with such previously known cap dispenser elements are that the assemblies require a complicated and hence expensive construction and/or that a unitary collecting cavity is used which requires the amount dispensed to be no less than the full volume of the cavity. Further, operation of these heretofore known cap dispenser elements often necessitates the use of both hands, one to hold the container and the other to operate a grip member located at the leading edge of the cap slide element, and is therefore difficult to manipulate.
The present invention is directed to a relatively inexpensive, plastic molded construction for a cap dispenser which is designed to permit the user to operate a dispenser slide with a finger of the hand holding the container. In addition, the slide element is arranged with a plurality of separate trap chute spaces to collect material so that the operator can readily discharge an entire volume of material collected or a fraction thereof.